Archive for the 'Ducks A Z' Tag Under 'Ducks' Category

The name certainly sounds like he is straight out of Scandinavia but Stefan Noesen makes it clear where he originates from on his back just below his right shoulder.

A sizable tattoo -- one of a few Noesen adorns -- has the unmistakable red, white and blue image of the Texas state flag. And the top prospect the Ducks grabbed from Ottawa in the Bobby Ryan trade is proud to be part of a growing fraternity.

Hockey players are coming out of the Lone Star State. Imagine that.

"It's starting to get a lot bigger," said Noesen, the Senators' 2011 first-round pick born and raised in Plano. "I think we have four or five guys. We have a guy in college right now at [Boston U.], Cason Hohmann. You've got Colin Jacobs, who signed with Buffalo. Chris Brown (a Phoenix prospect).

Great moments aren't limited to superstars or even those with Hall of Fame credentials.

Moments can be just as great for players who continue to plug away as they try to turn their break into something more substantial. Patrick Maroon is still plugging, trying to find his way into the NHL and stay there.

All that were present regaled in Maroon's finest moment of an NHL career that's been about cups of coffee to savor amid the years spent on the American Hockey League circuit piling up goals and penalty minutes.

The night of May 12 was crushing as a 48-game season of redemption for the Ducks ended with a Game 7 thud, a 3-2 defeat to Detroit that didn't feel nearly as close as it looked on the scoreboard.

And the Ducks dressing room afterward was what you would expect, a group of players either upset or simply stunned by losing a first-round playoff series it thought it should have won before then.

Ben Lovejoy had been with his new team for all of three months but the defenseman summed up what he called was a "terrible feeling" in two more words. "It sucks," he said.

The ironic thing about that low point for Lovejoy is it came in a game in which the Ducks put him on the ice for a career-long 26 minutes and six seconds, showing how much they trusted him in the playoffs and how far he had come in those three months.

Most will immediately think of his 10 seasons as captain of the Montreal Canadiens when it comes to the subject of Saku Koivu but the longtime center is now heading into Year 5 with the Ducks.

His run in Anaheim has been an extension of what made him stand out with the Canadiens -- heavy doses of solid two-way play, professionalism and leadership by the example of his no-nonsense competitiveness.

Numbers may never lie but they also don't tell the whole story when it comes to Koivu. It is clear that his days of a 50-to-70-point producer are well in the past but the Ducks aren't paying him $2.5 million this season (with the potential for $1 million in bonuses) for numbers.

The only thing that hasn't made Koivu's time with the Ducks more distinguishable is that he's only been in two playoff series with both resulting in stinging first-round defeats.

In that sense, it has also been an extension of his time in Montreal. At 38, Koivu doesn't have many more chances to play in a Stanley Cup final or even be part of the NHL's final four but he's again put his faith in the Ducks getting him there.

Let's face it, Jonas Hiller could start for the majority of teams in the National Hockey League. And when he's on his game, the Swiss goalie has the ability to steal wins.

The Ducks are blessed to have him and Viktor Fasth as a one-two punch in net that should give them a chance to win on the majority of nights in the upcoming 2013-14 season. The two were a key part of a surprising second-place Western Conference finish.

But Hiller hasn't won the hearts of the Ducks faithful like Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Maybe it's the slow starts he's prone to have or the occasional soft goal let in at the wrong time. Maybe it's that his star turn in the 2009 playoffs is now off in the distance.

And there are those who continue to hold the belief that Hiller just isn't the same goalie who was operating at a Vezina Trophy-like level in early 2011 before his mysterious bout with vertigo. Never mind that his numbers since have been commendable.

All that matters is what the Ducks believe they have in him. And that will carry a lot of meaning going forward as Hiller enters the final year of his contract with Fasth on board at a reasonable rate and stud prospect John Gibson in the stable.

He has no NHL games on his resume and couldn't even take part in the Ducks' summer prsopect camp because of an ailment he chose not to disclose.

But there was John Gibson being asked by fans to take pictures with them and sign various items, which he did dutifully while watching scrimmage games from the stands at Anaheim Ice.

Such is life when you're a ballyhooed prospect in the vein of Cam Fowler and Bobby Ryan. Attention comes your way when you're an American goalie who's already had medals draped around his neck.

"It’s obviously a pretty cool experience," Gibson said last month. "It’s nice when you have kids that look up to you. I think it’s on the players and and it’s our job to be a good role model. Hopefully inspire them to want to play hockey and help hockey grow."

Gibson isn't a modern-day Tom Barrasso, who came straight out of a Boston-area high school into the NHL and won the Vezina Trophy as a 19-year-old. But he is a prospect of the highest order, one that former GM Brian Burke calls "special."

There were a lot of reasons for Ryan Getzlaf to be motivated for the 2012-13 season.

At the top of the list was a rebound from his disastrous 2011-12 to prove that it was an anomaly and not the sign of a downward trend. Running alongside that was the specter of free agency around the corner and a massive pay day from the Ducks -- or someone else.

One could sarcastically say that he had 66 million reasons to be motivated. But there was also erasing the stain that was the Ducks of '11-12, who helped get a coach fired and finished an uncharacteristic 13th in the Western Conference.

There were just 48 games to get up for instead of 82 and avoiding another bad start that would put them in a familiar early hole. And Getzlaf's stature as one of the NHL's best players was being called into question.

From the first puck drop on Jan. 19, Getzlaf simply looked like a different player. And it showed throughout the season, with moments that revealed how much he grew into his leadership role as captain.

In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Francois Beauchemin did all the things that a No. 1 defenseman should do for the Ducks in leading an improved blue line.

Beauchemin's all-around play earned enough Norris Trophy consideration to give him a fourth-place finish. But he's also going to be 33 coming off a torn ACL injury and isn't what you would call a prototypical No. 1 defenseman.

Cam Fowler was that, at least for imagination's sake, when the Ducks eagerly snapped him up in the 2010 NHL draft. And in a perfect world, the Ducks hope he can still become that.

Young forwards were bright spots for the Ducks in their otherwise disappointing playoff loss to Detroit. But so was Fowler, who's still very young at 21.

An improved commitment to defense started to have an effect. He'll never be a mean Chris Pronger-type in his own end but Fowler showed that he can do more than move the puck and skate like the wind.

Viktor Fasth really isn't out of nowhere but he was still largely an unknown when he put on his Ducks game sweater for the first time and took his place in goal for his NHL debut on Jan. 26.

By the end of that Saturday night in Anaheim, Fasth had snatched David Legwand's backhand shot out of the air to preserve a 3-2 win. And the story was just beginning to be written.

Eight wins in his first eight starts to set a Ducks franchise record for victories by a goaltender to start his NHL career, putting him with Ray Emery and Bob Froese as the only netminders who accomplished that feat. National media outlets soon found their way to the team's practices, joining others in chronicling his rise from a modest beginning as a young goalie toiling away for years in Sweden's lower-level leagues while supporting himself by teaching autistic children.

A lucrative contract extension came immediately afterward. An indication of the immediate direction the Ducks may go with their goaltending could have arrived with that extension.

He has all of 38 games in the National Hockey League under his belt but Emerson Etem can truly be called a hometown favorite. And that is something when your team is based in California.

Let's face it, most NHL players either emanate from the northern United States or further north in Canada. Or they come from outside North America altogeher.

Beyond his status as the greatest hockey player who ever lived in the eyes of many, Wayne Gretzky also leaves a lasting legacy as the one who triggered a tidal wave of enthusiasm over the sport in Southern California.

It can be argued that the presence of Gretzky and his ability to make the Kings relevant in a crowded sports marketplace is one reason why the Ducks and the San Jose Sharks are in existence. Most notably, the wave filtered all the way down to the youth level.

Participation in hockey has mushroomed in the Southland during subsequent generations and Etem is part of that as a native of nearby Long Beach. He joins Rancho Santa Margarita's Jonathon Blum and Gardena native Beau Bennett as California-based players who were drafted in the first round and have played in the NHL.